Medical diagnostic ultrasound is an imaging modality that employs ultrasound waves to probe the acoustic properties of the body of a patient and produce a corresponding image. Generation of sound wave pulses and detection of returning echoes is typically accomplished via a plurality of transducers located in the probe. Such transducers typically include electromechanical elements capable of converting electrical energy into mechanical energy for transmission and mechanical energy back into electrical energy for receiving purposes. Some ultrasound probes include up to thousands of transducers arranged as linear arrays.
In conventional ultrasound systems, a silicon pulse generator may be employed as part of the transducer driving mechanism, e.g., as part of the ultrasound pulsing circuits. However, certain applications, such as ultrasound surgery, shear wave, drug delivery, and so forth, require high energy delivering ultrasound pulsing circuits with ultra-long burst mode pulse length, multi-MHz pulse frequencies, and high pulse amplitude, which silicon-based circuitry may be unsuitable for delivering.